Here's How Much The 'Average' Wall Streeter Makes Compared To The 'Average' New Yorker

flickr/whitneyinchicago

Every year the Office of the New York State Comptroller does a deep dive into Wall Street employment and compensation. This morning, the office released its report for 2012.

From these stats, you'll get an understanding a few really important things - how healthy the industry is, and how it's contributing to the New York City and New York state's finances.

Plus, two words: Income. Gap.

Here are the highlights (you can read the full report here, if you like):

• There's still a Wall Street employment multiplier - for ever job that's gained or lost on Wall Street, two are gained or lost in NYC. For every job that's gained or lost on Wall Street, one is gained or lost in New York State.
• New York City depends on Wall Street tax, New York state does even more so because of its dependence on personal income tax - Wall Street contributed $3.8 billion to NYC's budget, that's 27% more than last year and the 2nd highest number on record. New York state got $10.3 billion from Wall Streeters, a small increase from last year but also the 4th highest level on record.
• Wall Street wages are still on the decline, but are also still way higher than the averagewage - in 2012, the Street accounted for 21.9% of wages in NYC, but just 5.1% of jobs. Wages declined slightly, by 2.4% to $59.3 billion. The average Wall Street salary came in at $360,700, the NYC average came in at $69,200.
• This income gap/growing inequality thing is not a joke - Lets look at this historically. Now the average Wall Street salary is 5.2 times higher than the average New York salary. Right before the crisis (its peak) in 2007 it was 6.2 times higher. Twenty-five years ago, it was just twice as high, according to the report.
• The bonus pool is bigger and less volatile, but getting harder to track - Because of new regulation, more bonuses are getting paid out as stock, and cash bonuses are being dispersed outside traditional bonus times. This is making it hard for the Comptroller's office to determine what's a bonus and what's base compensation. Either way, the Wall Street bonus pool grew an estimated 8% in 2012, to $20 billion.
• Only 20% of the U.S.A's securities industry is in NYC - didn't know that did you? But 89% of New York's finance jobs are in NYC.
• Wall Street jobs are still really hard to get - employment continues to contract. Wall Street has 25,600 jobs less than it did during the financial crisis and since August 2011 has lost 7,300 jobs.
• Wall Street did well on profits in 2012, but 2013 looks uglier - the Street made 3x more in 2012 than it did in 2011 with $23.9 billion in profits. But the Comptroller's Office sees risks that could make the 2nd half of 2013 look pretty ugly - litigation costs, turmoil in Washington and uncertainty in the bond market all make the list.

So bottom line: Wall Steeters are richer and harder to find than your average New Yorker. No surprise there. Plus, everyone should hold on tight through 2013 - could be "lumpy", as JP Morgan CFO Marianne Lake would say.